Be wary of teach English abroad schemes

An after graduation choice among many college students that is growing in popularity is the option of teaching English abroad.  There are many programs and organizations out there available, some are good, some are bad.  It is important to be picky when choosing a program that will send you to another part of the world.

I am going to tell you about my story and what went wrong.

I graduated university in 2005, after spending my 5th year living abroad in Barcelona, Spain.  I loved Spain, I loved Barcelona, loved living abroad, and wanted to stay longer.  I found out about a program through the Spanish Embassy in Washington D.C. called "North American Language and Culture Assistants", or in Spanish: Auxiliar de Conversacion".  I applied to the program, was accepted and placed in Seville, Spain.  I was really excited about spending another year in Spain, perfecting a language I had grown to love, and gaining actual classroom experience and practice for a potential career in teaching. 

I returned home to California for two months to go through the visa process.  They were giving us "student" visas since getting us approved for work visas would take too long, and too much money.  Because of complications, I didn't receive my visa until the day before my flight to Spain.  Some other language assistants didn't receive theirs at all and since we had to submit our passports to the consulate in order to receive a visa, were forced to change their departure dates.  One language assistant was advised by the consulate to go to Spain, and mail her passport home to a friend who could then go to the consulate, passport in hand, "pretend" to be her in order to get the visa affixed, and mail it back to Spain.  This is illegal.

After finally arriving in Spain we were told we needed to get student residence cards in order to remain in the country past the three months permitted by our student visa.  The people working in the immigration office repeatedly sent us away because we had the wrong type of visa, and they did not know what status we were supposed to have.  They repeatedly demanded more and more documents from us, and when we went to the Consejeria de Educacion (the office of Education that was employing us) for assistance, they were completely clueless.

Finally our resident cards were sorted out.  I spent a total of 15 hours waiting to speak to someone about this issue. 

We arrived in Seville and started working in October 2005.  It turns out, because of internal confusion, we wouldn't get paid for any of our work until the end of December.  Apparently, this is normal for first year teachers in Spain to deal with.  When other language assistants requested explanations about what we were supposed to do for money, for food and for rent among other things, we were told that it was out of their hands, and we should ask our parents for money.  We were only able to get these extremely rude responses when we physically went to the Education Offices and demanded answers.  The people in charge of the program (in Washington and in Spain) had long since stopped responding to emails.

Many, many language assistants went home during the winter break.  I stayed on, because I didn't think there would be any more issues like this.

My job at the school was all right.   I really loved working with the children, however felt that the English teacher I was supposed to be assisting did not want me there.  Instead of having me attend classes with him, as I was supposed to, he had me read a dictionary aloud into a tape recorder, so he could hear the correct pronunciation of words he wasn't yet familiar with.

He also would leave me alone in the classroom when he was on business trips, without any materials or any clue as to where the students were in the textbook.  (This as it turns out is against the law)

When I discussed these issues with another teacher, I was told not to discuss it with Marcos, the head English teacher in order to avoid an uncomfortable situation.

In February 2006, a survey was given out.  I gave the school mostly 5's on a scale of 1-5, however I felt I had to be honest about what had been going on.  I was under the impression the survey was anonymous, however it had to be signed by the principal first, before sending it to the Education Office.  I was not aware of this, and sent the survey. 

To make a long story short, I was fired for my survey answers.  I was called into the principals office on March 16th, and was told the events that had unfolded after my survey was received by the Education Office.  The Education Office had phoned my school, Pino Flores, and asked them why our survey answers were so different from each other.  (The school also filled out a survey about my performance).  The school responded saying that they had lied about me on the first (positive) survey they had filled out, and that I was actually a very bad conversation assitant.  The Education office requested a new (honest) survey from the school instead.  The reasons for firing me were bad attendance (even though I phoned in all of the days I was ill, or out because my father passed away), and because I was "shy", and that they hadn't been happy with me from the start. 

This is obvious retaliation, for something that I had thought was constructive criticism. 

The principal suggested I go to the Education Office and request a new placement.  I did this, and they were unable to put me in another school.  When I tried to get paid for the half of March I worked, they left that decision up to the school (even though the Education Office pays me through the school), and the school said no, that they felt I didn't deserve to be paid.

I have spoken to pretty much everyone involved with the program, and in the end, no one would even agree with me that I hadn't done anything wrong. They provided no assistance or suggestions whatsoever, about what I should do.  I was completely abandoned in a foreign country with very little money.

I am writing this so other people don't experience what I did.  (That was my intention when filling out the survey honestly, as well).  Living abroad, teaching English abroad, and Spain in general can be all beautiful experiences, but you need to be careful.

If you are interested in a teach abroad program, request several email addresses of past participants.  Make sure you have a back-up plan or some sort of safety net in case the program doesn't work out, or goes horribly wrong.  Don't be afraid to ask questions, and demand signed contracts stating you will be paid on time.  If something sounds suspicious, move on, there's plenty of opportunities out there.

For anyone interested in the program I've described above, the website can be found here: http://www.sgci.mec.es/usa/AC/indexing.shtml

In addition to schools in Andalucia, program participants can also be placed in Madrid, among many other cities in Spain.  I have a friend who taught with the program in Madrid and had a great time, and is going back for a second year.  (She also was paid each month, and wasn't lied to by her program advisors!)

Just beware if you do get placed in Andalucia that you may run into these issues, and if you get placed in Sevilla, at CEIP Pino Flores, I'd demand another placement.

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